Discovering Jordan

We are invited from the organisation Bi’a to discover Jordan, take a lot of pictures and help them to encourage tourists to visit the country.

The first question of the people when we told them we would be travelling to Jordan was: “Isn’t that dangerous?” And we discovered that Jordan was not really on their list of destinations to visit. And it wasn’t on our list either.

Of course we also thought about the dangers. But while preparing for the trip we found out, that there is peace in Jordan for 30 years now. But there is a travel warning from the ministry of foreign affairs though.

The sites I found surfing the web about Jordan and the people said, that the country is quite traditional and you should dress appropiate especially as a woman. Ther will be no alcohol available – only in special hotels. So I left all my tops at home that would have shown a lot of skin and all my sandals.

Now I am in the country and could rewrite the information on the web.

The airline Royal Jordanian is very comfortable and people are very friendly and caring. Immigration was – like in every country – a serious thing. You have to pay 40 Jordan Dinars for the visa per person. I could not get any Dinars in Austria so we had to exchange at the aiport. But the authorities are well prepaired and there is a money exchange right at the gate. They charge a huge fee though. We only got 81 Dinars for 100 Euros though the course is nearly 1:1.

On the plane and at the airport you can see traditionally dressed woman but also some in a mini skirt and flip flops. We are warmly welcome everywhere and the first sentence is mostly “welcome to Jordan”! A lot of people speak very good English. (60 % of the inhabitants) And everybody is very helpful.

The hotel is four star standard and this is quite the same as in Europe: a lift and a hair dryer qualify for that. The staff is friendly and maintenance very quick. Mostly two people are at the same time caring for us. They actively approach you when they feel the slightest hesitation or see your searching look.

We have a private driver who answers all our questions and we now know that a sheep costs 400 Dinars and a flat 250000. Don’t panic when you see the prices written like this: 1000 D which means one Dinar!

The main city Amman is prospering and the airport was reopend only a couple of months ago. There is a lot of construction work going on. Shops are open until midnight or are operating 24/7. Food is American style but there are also traditonal dishes available like foul or falafel. Alcohol is available in many shops but our hotel has no license to sell it. In the supermarket you find all global brands and well known products.

Prices are cheap for certain products. For example food: we ate at a local restaurant and paid for drinks and falafel and foul and hummus with bread 4 Dinars including taxes and tipp for all three of us. The dish of the day at our hotel is five dinars and a burger with frensh fries costs three dinars. The entrance fee for the roman theatre is one dinar per person and the hercules temple costs two dinars.